MAKTS - Maths: A Key To Success

The project rises from the urgent need to foster the acquisition of Maths skills through English, by an integrated use of CLIL methodologies and ICT technologies.

 

The project, which aims at implementing school success by boosting pupils’ motivation and personal involvement in learning Maths and using its procedures transversally while learning other specific school subjects, is intended for both well-performing students, who are going to attend university, and low-performing students, who are more likely to face school failure and dropping out (non-native Italian speakers and pupils with learning difficulties and low levels of motivation).

The introduction of CLIL-oriented strategies (interaction, task- and project-based learning, cooperative learning and workshops) will increase the pupils’ sense of self-efficacy, while ICTs will meet the learning styles/needs of digital native students.

These goals can be achieved by setting up a dedicated team of experienced teachers (6 other-subject teachers and 2 language teachers working in the 5 different courses of study offered in our school), who will operate extensively and crosswise throughout the project and beyond.

Mobilities will be carried out with the objective of increasing the methodological and language skills of our other-subject teachers (CLIL training through a structured course in the UK) and introducing good practices to be shared with the teachers of our host schools (job-shadowing in 2 high schools in England and the Netherlands).

Thus, the so-called MAKTS team will be able to create a set of highly understandable and purposely controlled tools  and texts for effectively teaching  Maths and other Maths-related school subjects in English. These tools will then be used in any of our 5 different study courses to help both native and non-native students enhance their linguistic and scientific know how/skills.

The latest ICT technologies will be largely used to boost our pupils’ motivation and pleasure of learning Maths in L2 and applying it to the learning of other related school subjects. TwinSpace will be used by the project teachers for internal communication and to share ideas, materials and results with relevant stakeholders. The two teachers of English will support the team throughout the whole project life cycle; they will be particularly involved in preparatory activities (ESP course focused on classroom management and mathematical language), in itinere (backing of teachers in mobility, preparing teaching materials in L2 and implementing learning modules in class) and in the final project evaluation phase (skills assessment).

Finally, having a highly motivated and fully working MAKTS team will represent a precious long-term resource to be used as a: 

- reliable operational tool for planning and supervising further CLIL activities within our school;

- reference point for the implementation of similar experiences in other schools of our territory.